Issues
by tami3
Summary: The stress of saving the world is enough- Serge just can't handle telling Leena he killed Miguel(her dad), so he considers having Glenn do it. Getting to it,he realizes a few things he hasn't before- and in the end, how much trouble he's in. R & R


"Issues"

Serge was having a problem grasping the complexity of his problems. While it was true that some tasks topped his list, and pushed others aside- fact was, after slaying the Water Dragon, he'd still have to tell Leena that he found her father in limbo and had killed him. Why? Well, he was too sensitive to even consider saying so to her face, or even in the imagination for a few laughs from an unseen audience-but "he was in our way," came to mind.

He wasn't that stupid. Even if it were a basic truth, without a few sympathetic embellishments, Leena would never speak to him again. Some of the more idiotic members of the team thought she would give him one good, concussing whack with her frying pan and it would be all over. They really underestimated the depth of that girl. Although a better way of saying it might be they overestimated her shallowness. Which was hardly anything at all besides a big smidgen of insecurity. Given everyone had some of that, he hated how everyone interpreted her embarrassingly bossy outlet for it as a major character flaw. Which it was, sort of, but no one would ever care if they analyzed correctly like he did

Leena was his friend, at the very least. She deserved her truth. And it was up for dispute whether she had earned sensitivity along with it, but Serge was Serge. He had gotten offers from the others to break the news to her instead- he was sorely tempted, but hadn't succumbed to such pettiness yet. But the stress was wearing him down. It really was. In the middle of the next fight against something 10 feet taller then him, he might just blurt out "Yes, thank you so much!" while getting hit with a level 3 elemental. And the others would gape because he'd cracked under pressure and had actually talked. Then remembering where they were, they'd whip out a revival item, or maybe two because the pause might have caused another K'O.

All he knew was that he felt an urge to feel completion. Going so many places, making so many life altering acquaintances- it left jobs undone, where they'd promise their help as a squad that looked out for general well being of everyone in the planet. Even if they won the confrontation that determined the imminent salvation or destruction of their lives- it would take energy, and struggles against the impossibility of time and space restraints, to fulfill the promises of reuniting loved ones and finding keepsakes. When it was all done, maybe he'd be left undone.

Back to Leena, though. That was one thing he could deal with, if he weren't so spineless. With a summons she'd be next to him. Or them, if he chose to have a mediator after all. The best prospect so far seemed to be Glenn- he'd shown an awkward fondness for Serge's redheaded sidekick. (They were all his sidekicks really.) It seemed to be a matter of rank. Serge was getting more involved with Kid all the time. When he wasn't with her and dragging her through her conflicts, he occasionally enjoyed Leena's company, a strong link with the normalcy of the past. She was lonely, teetering on the edge of significance as the holder of the memory of Serge's brief alter identity. But she didn't matter next to the two that had to be paired together before the laws of physics could be shredded and stepping into another dimension could be done.

So if everyone needed a counterpart, Glenn could be Leena's. He was strong- almost as strong as Serge. He was a keeper to legacies also- his very weapons were each a legend about great warriors of the past. His father, gone like Leena's from a search for something great, like a holy grail, resided in one Einlanzer. His brother, confirmed dead for the same cause, slept with a martyr's heroism in another. Of course, Dario's twin had been discovered, and he'd fallen awkwardly silent when Glenn had happily told him that he'd received Dario's spiritual encouragement to carry on the ideals he no longer could. When presented with the sword, laid flat across Glenn's palms like a scepter for a king, he'd shifted uneasily and stated loftily; "I died?"

And Glenn had almost visibly deflated from his enthusiasm. But to lessen the awful queasiness in the atmosphere, he'd answered "Yes, but I did too, so it's not as terrible as it sounds." And the eerie quiet had been drawn out to the point that even Serge had wanted to slink away and bury himself under a meter of dirt, but Dario had smiled at the last second and simply said "Well, that sucks." And had put Glenn in headlock. You could have cried at the inadequacy of the reunion.

But enough of that too. Glenn had been very nice about the whole thing, even giving Serge a preview of what he would say if he had to, without assuming that Serge was actually going to entrust him to be an envoy. He certainly had the right sounding words during rehearsal. All three of them had been left fatherless rather young, but Glenn appeared to have needed to cope the most. Hence the ability to relate to other people better about being orphans. Well, Serge and Leena not so much orphans as latchkey kids, because their moms were still alive and had taken over as the main provider. Glenn, on the other hand. . . mom dead before he could say her name, dad dead before he understood death, brother dead before he was a man. One could say he was the most knowledgeable about death on the receiving end.

The more Serge thought about it, the better the idea seemed. Leena might be upset that he hadn't come to her when he so clearly was the one she wanted to be with in times of distress. She might even conclude that it was another sign of how her bond with him had broken and he was busy forging a new one with Kid. But she was someone who could deal with it, he knew- the wrong message be damned, he didn't have enough brains to work out things to perfection. She could use another friend besides him anyways- other than Poshul, there wasn't anyone in the party who was making much of a connection with her. Again with the misconceptions over attitude.

But wait, whoops . . . didn't Serge banish the ghost of Glenn's father a while back, looking for the Einlanzer? He'd been trying to fix that one too . . . The person who had said she'd try to talk to him was Leena, of course. This was where he wished the attraction hadn't been mutual between the two. Talk about being a double standard.

Well then, forget that. Perfection? He didn't know about perfection, but did know about being royally screwed.

Whew, simple and quick. I've always thought about these kind of things, which is just my own self ruinous way of destroying the RPG experience. As someone once said, cartoons don't have to make sense. And video games only have to make a little more because they're not real but you're going through the actions.

This is my tribute to Rpgworld, the online comic. (Anyone else read that?) It has got to be the funniest game parody site out there, with the possible exception of Vg cats. If anyone has the time, be sure to check out or ( Yes, I know, shameless advertising. . . more like distributor of a good thing.)

For those who have read "Semblance", which is more or less about Glenn being like Orhla, then I guess this is similar in how Glenn is now like Leena. I didn't even notice that until I started writing this. But then, Leena is sorta like Serge, so Serge is like Glenn, and so on. So everyone is like everyone else, if you draw the connections. Maybe it's then Squaresoft's hidden message of how there is a human experience we all undergo, so we should be less judgmental of others? Nah....

I've tried this story before, but it was too sappy. Much too sappy for the insanity that is the inconsistencies of CC. There's probably a lot of mistakes about the storyline too, but it's been years since I played the game and even then I was puzzled over the two worlds.

Gah, I'm confused. I need to sleep, I think. I dunno if I can continue this- it was fun, but where can I possibly go from here? Drop a review, please.


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